Day 15 & not lovin it...

[leilahk]

I'm on day 15 of my Whole30 and am not doing well. I'm tired all the time and have been having digestive issues. The first week or so was rough - dizziness, headaches, major digestive issues. Since then they've tapered off a bit but I just don't feel like I am benefiting from this experience - I feel basically the same as I did when I was eating healthily before I started this. 

 

I'm not having a ton of cravings, though I do still get hungry between meals and tend to snack on nuts and fruit.

 

Here is an example of what I ate for the past few days:

 

Tuesday:

Breakfast: 3 hardboiled eggs, banana

Lunch: Salad with chicken (about a palm-sized portion); carrots & guac

Dinner:Tuna salad lettuce wraps, 1/2 sweet potato (roasted w/ ghee)

Snacks: pistachios, apples

 

Yesterday: 

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, 1/2 sweet potato cooked in ghee

Lunch: Leftover almond crusted tilapia (probably 1/2 lb) and roasted broccoli

Dinner: Tuna salad lettuce wraps, carrots & guac

Snacks: Apples & almond butter, larabar

 

Today:

Breakfast: I can't eat eggs everyday (though I try to most days) so this morning I had berries, a banana, almond butter, cashews and coconut flakes mixed together

Lunch: Salad w/ turkey (deli meat, sugar free), carrots & guac

Dinner: Chipotle salad - greens, carnitas, salsa, guac

Snacks: Larabar

 

I am not super active - mostly just walks every day.

I do have a sneaking suspicion that I may have an egg sensitivity - how do you tell??

 

Thanks!

[ShannonM816]

To really know for sure if you have an egg sensitivity, you'd need to cut them out for a few weeks, see how you feel, and then try reintroducing them and see how you feel. If you feel better without them, then you'd know for sure. 

 

I understand not wanting eggs every day, especially if you're worried you have a sensitivity to them, but your fruit and nut combo was really not the best choice. Try to make every meal meet the meal template: 1-2 palm-sized portions of protein (nuts are a fat, not a protein), 1-2 thumb-sized portions of fat, and a whole bunch of vegetables -- at least one cup, but aim for 2-3 cups at every meal. Google Whole30 no egg breakfasts for options, but basically, any foods you can eat any other time of day will work great for your first meal of the day. Leftovers are easy, or if you want something more breakfasty, do something like sweet potato hash with sausage, and add any other vegetables to that that sound good to you. Many people report that having fruit at all with their Meal1 leaves them feeling hungry throughout the day, so maybe skip the fruit at breakfast for a while and see what happens. You don't really need fruit, since you can get all the nutrients you would get from fruit from vegetables as well, but if you want to have fruit, try to have no more than two servings a day, always with a meal, not on its own.

 

In general, I suspect you're not really eating enough. When you have eggs as your only protein source, a serving is as many whole eggs as you can hold in your hand -- 3-4 for most people, more for some. (Bacon is more of a fat source than a protein source.) Deli meat really takes a lot to be a good serving size. In addition to just not eating enough, your fruit-heavy snacks could be causing a spike in blood sugar and subsequent drop, which can leave you more tired and lead to moodiness and increased hunger and cravings for sweets. Both of these things together could easily explain you not feeling so great. 

 

You can definitely add more vegetables to all your meals. Salads, when they're just leafy greens, tend not to keep people satisfied very well. Try adding more substantial vegetables to those if you're not already. You could chop up zucchini or yellow squash (raw is fine for these), throw in snap peas, cucumber, radishes, jicama, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, tomatoes. 

 

Lose the snacks. If you're truly hungry -- as in you could eat something bland like plain fish and broccoli -- eat something, but make it a mini-meal of protein, fat, and vegetables, and realize that needing a snack means you need to increase the size of your meals. When you get the size of your meals dialed in, you'll easily be able to go 4-5 hours between meals, and in a pinch probably even a little longer. If you're not hungry enough to eat something bland at those snack times, you're not really hungry, so find something else to do to keep your mind off food -- go for a walk, call a friend, read a book, work on a hobby, anything that keeps your mind off food should work.

 

Keep the Larabars for emergencies only, where an emergency is being stuck in traffic due to a wreck, or suddenly having to run out the door to get to the hospital because a family member had an emergency, or some other not planned for activity where you have absolutely no other choice. If you can plan for it, plan hard boiled eggs or a can or pouch of tuna or salmon and some carrot sticks. 

 

You didn't mention water intake, but try to aim for 1/2 oz per pound of body weight, so if you weigh 120 lbs, go for at least 60 oz of water. And don't forget to salt your food. Your body does actually need some salt, and if you're not having processed foods, you're probably not getting much salt unless you remember to add some.

[MeadowLily]

http://whole30.com/2015/06/future/

 

We will no longer promote dried-fruit-and-nut bars under our #Whole30 Approved banner.

 

 

Going forward, we will no longer promote any dried-fruit-and-nut bars under our official Whole30 Approved program. The only bars to which we will lend our name and our logo are those with meat as a base (like Primal Pacs,Chomps, and Epic Bars), as those will never be mistaken for candy.

[chezjulie]

MeadowLily, my understanding is that Larabars are still compliant, though as always recommended for emergencies only. The change is that the Whole30 team is no longer endorsing and recommending them as a Whole30 Approved product, and Larabar will no longer be able to market themselves as such.

 

I'm not saying that they are a good choice for a snack; I have definitely used them as a sugar crutch myself. But I think people should understand that they are not technically banned, just not officially endorsed. Does that sound right, mods?

[ladyshanny]

Yes, that is exactly right, Julie.  Good recap!

[leilahk]

Thanks for the advice! I've been trying to get more creative with my eggs in the morning to help out & am making breakfast sausage to help with that, too.

I guess I didn't realize that nuts are considered fat not protein. Are there any non-meat snacks that you recommend or is it pretty much meat and veggies as the only option?

I'm trying to eat more protein and veggies and also eat less fruit. I still don't feel more energy though, and actually feel crabbier... Any advice?

[SpinSpin]

Unfortunately, snacks are not really recommended. If you are hungry, like fish and broccoli sounds divine, have a mini meal -- some protein (say a chicken leg or maybe some poached shrimp) with a compliant dip or olives or avocado, and some veggies  would be the way to go. Otherwise, try and bump up the sizes of your meals. If you are needing to snack, your previous meal may not have been large enough or contained enough fat. 

 

With feeling crabby, what about adding some starchy veggies to your meals? Some roasted sweet potatoes, or white potatoes, carrots, roast beets, turnips, parsnips, winter squash.. the extra carbs might help with your moods. I saw you had a half a sweet potato with one meal, what about having a starchy veg twice a day? Also if you are near that 'time of the month' or during, you may want to bump up the starchy veggies for that too, as us ladies need more carbs during that time to keep our moods level. 

 

ETA -- What about having leftovers for breakfast instead of eggs? or maybe a soup with some sausage or other protein with it? 

 

 

Hope that helps 

[AmyS]

Thanks for the advice! I've been trying to get more creative with my eggs in the morning to help out & am making breakfast sausage to help with that, too.

I guess I didn't realize that nuts are considered fat not protein. Are there any non-meat snacks that you recommend or is it pretty much meat and veggies as the only option?

I'm trying to eat more protein and veggies and also eat less fruit. I still don't feel more energy though, and actually feel crabbier... Any advice?

Here's an example of how you might start thinking about meal composition, based on what you posted for one of your days above:

 

Breakfast: 3 hardboiled eggs, roasted cubed sweet potato, roasted kale (enough to make 1-3 cups)

Lunch: Salad made of 6 cups greens, 1 cubed tomato, a generous portion of carrots, a generous portion of gauc, with chicken (about two palm-sized portions)

Dinner:Tuna salad, a portion that's much bigger than you think is morally right and proper and includes plenty of homemade mayo; lettuce wraps - lots and lots and lots etc., 1 whole sweet potato (roasted w/ ghee)

 

Please keep in mind that if you are eating lettuce, you need like a wheelbarrow full to make a portion. Think about how much that wilts down. It's the if-it-was-wilted-down size that you're measuring as 1-3 cups. Many of us find it pretty much impossible to fill up on lettuce type greens. Hardier greens that can stand up to roasting, sauteeing, wilting, steaming, give you greater satiety and a better sense of how much a portion actually is.

 

Mini-meals as needed while getting used to eating a full Whole30 meal twice a day: a palm size portion of tuna or chicken with mayo and a half of a sweet potato or white potato and/or roasted greens or other veggies

 

Also, do seriously consider eating just about anything you happen to enjoy eating for breakfast. Google Whole30 non egg breakfasts (and look at the ones on this forum for approved ideas) for approximately four gazillion ideas.

 

In general, if you are feeling crabby and hungry, you really really really need to eat more more more. More protein. More fat. More veggies. Lots of good ole' starchy carbs. Eat up. We'll wait.